This blog is about the book 'CONFIDENTIAL: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan.' The biography of a legendary Hollywood producer.
Cover image: Milchan embraces Arafat. A James Bond fan, Arafat thought he was embracing a film producer who had just introduced him to one of the original Bond's, Sean Connery. Arafat never realized he was schmoozing a top Israeli intelligence asset. - SCROLL DOWN:

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Arnon Milchan, the lead producer and financier of The Reverent, has been personally nominated for an Academy Award, and his film has been nominated for 12 Oscars in total, leading all other 2016 nominees. The nominations came in almost all of the leading categories such as Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Cinematography.... and of course, Best Picture.

Milchan-produced films have won 'Best Picture' in the past two years, including Twelve Years a Slave and Birdman. But with 12 nominations in hand, The Reverent seems to be the favorite going in, which would make it the third Best Picture in a row should it win. What sets this year apart, however, is that Milchan has been personally nominated, which means that should The Reverent win, he will accept the Oscar on stage and will likely take the opportunity to speak.

People who have read the book Confidential and are familiar with Arnon Milchan's backstory will understand the significance of such a moment. As the recent article in New York Magazine states; "...the 71-year-old Milchan himself proves to be a character worthy of an epic."

Milchan, the owner of New Regency is surrounded by his filmmakers
during the 2014 Academy Awards 'Best Picture' win for '12 Years a Slave'.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Arnon Milchan has had an extraordinary run of good fortune since the publication of "Confidential". Perhaps it took the liberation from his secretive past, following his outing in the book, and the follow-up documentary, to set him on a business and artistic path that has resulted in what appears to be a likely third 'Best Picture' win in a row at the Academy Awards.... Twelve Years a Slave, Birdman... and now The Reverent? It's enough to drive the army of conspiratorial anti-Semites on the internet who hate him, stark raving mad, and generate a smile for the rest of us.His latest films, The Reverent and The Big Shortare currently the most talked about films in the world, as the hype surrounding the release of Star Wars subsides. Indeed, it was The Reverent that cleaned up at the Golden Globes last night, winning in the Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Drama categories. Milchan was named by Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu the 'hero' of the film, sticking with it during almost insurmountable production problems,cost overruns. The 2016 Academy Awards are scheduled for February 28th. Stay tuned.

NBC News on 'Confidential': "A movie tycoon whose life story itself is a Hollywood movie"

Media Contact Information

July 17, 2011: The New York Times Introduces 'Confidential' to the World: GROUND BREAKING.

Click on image for the full article.

Fox News: "This is a Deadly Serious Book"

Fox News and the New York Times agree on something. Click on the image for the full backstory to the writing of the book 'Confidential' as published by FoxNews.com

Fox News on the 'Confidential' story: "This is a Movie in Itself"

Additional recommended reading:

For a wider understanding of Israel's intelligence services beyond the story of one facinating man, the authors of 'Confidential' also recommend Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman's gripping book 'Spies Against Armageddon'. Click on the image to go to their Amazon page.

CNN on the 'Confidential' story: "Hollywood Execs Will Be Fighting to Get This to The Big Screen"

The Daily Beast on Confidential - The Downfall of a Top Aerospace Scientist

GUT WRENCHING: Arnon and Richard Kelly Smyth go shopping for nuke materials. Smyth is caught...escapes... and 16 years of fear and exile ensue. Click on image for the story.

'Confidential' Co-author Doron Interviews for CBS News:

Author-Signed & Personalized Copies of Confidential Available Only Here:

Contact the Authors of 'Confidential' at 202-440-3050.

Tablet Magazine: The Shocking Milchan-South African Saga

He may have produced '12 Years a Slave' as a measure of redemption, but before that he played a key, controversial and highly secret role in Aparthide South Africa. Click on image for the exclusive details.

Sky News: Arnon Milchan wishes he hadn't denied it.

Milchan's Spymaster Blumberg: "For years I carried a cyanide capsule in case I was caught"

The only known photo of Arnon Milchan's Israeli Intelligence Handler and Trainer (between 1965-1981), LAKAM Chief and Master Spy Benjamin Blumberg. "Milchan was a man I could work with". Click Image for the full story.

Richard (AKA Dr. Jon Schiller) and Emily Smyth, The Owners of 'Milco', a LAKAM Front Company

The fugitive couple who escaped to 16 years of exile in Malaga, Spain, after shipping nuclear weapons triggers (Krytrons) to their long-time business partner/LAKAM handler, Arnon Milchan. Smyth, who was caught, extradited and convicted in the case, blames Arnon Milchan for destroying his life. Click on image for the story.

Krytron - a nuclear trigger

Like in any movie production "It's always the little things that cause the most trouble" - Arnon Milchan

Urenco Nuclear Centrifuge Blueprints...

In the dead of night, Arnon Milchan secured the designs for advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment... click on image for details:

A Fall From Grace - The Smyth mobile home

Once he was one of the most important and respected aerospace engineers in America with a waterfront mansion and a yacht. Today he lives in a little mobile home next to the railroad tracks in Lompoc, CA. Photo by Joseph Gelman. The Authors visited Mr. Smyth at his home as part of the investigative process.

Jonathan Pollard - Also a LAKAM Operative, and also handled by Rafi Eitan in 1985....

Arrested only months after Richard Kelly Smyth fled into exile in 1985 to live as a fugitive on the lam. The Smyth incident/disappearance undoubtedly played a negative role in Pollard's disproportionately harsh treatment... as US authorities were looking at that point to "send a message". Few have understood the connection between the Smyth and Pollard cases, and the time-frame. Pollard still rots in Jail, going on 29 years now.

Top Mossad operative and LAKAM Chief who was forced to resign following the Pollard Affair. Years earlier, Rafi Eitan had personally captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Eitan enjoys sculpting, and one of his sculptures sits in his friend Milchan's living room in his Malibu ocean-front mansion. Click Image for background on Rafi Eitan.

Arnon Milchan's $600,000,000 Art Collection

A less valuable sculpture by his friend Rafi Eitan sits on the living room table.

Arnon Milchan, Moshe Dayan and Leon Uris, the Author of Exodus.

It was Arnon Milchan who brokered the deal between Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon to create the Kadima Party

Arnon Milchan and French President Jacques Chirac

Standing alongside Milchan with blond short hair is Ase Thastrom, Milchan's former longtime lover who still lives in his Chateau in France, next door to the retired French President.

Peres, Milchan, Netanyahu

The Man in the Middle...in more ways than one

Arnon Milchan, Roman Polanski and Robert De Niro behind a 'Solidarity' sign in Poland

Milchan financed a production of 'Amadeus', the first Western cultural event held in Poland since before WWII. Polanski himself played the lead role. With the fall of Communisim in Poland, President Lech Walesa invited the trio for a Robert De Niro film festival that they organized.

Martin Scorsese directs Jerry Lewis in the 'King of Comedy' As Arnon Milchan looks on

Every Tabloid on the Planet Picks up on the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie 'Confidential' Scoop

The Authors didn't even consider it 'news' when Milchan described to them the behind-the-scenes story of the beginning of Angelina and Brad's relationship, and the break-up with Jennifer Aniston. Apperently the tabloids considered it huge news.

Arnon Milchan and Angelina Jolie

The Secrets of the 'Secret Agents' of Mr. and Mrs. Smith

The Authors of 'Confidential', Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman

Top-notch Investigative Journalism of the 'old school' kind. The stunning Investigation that brought a super-agent in from the cold.